On the 50th anniversary of the 1964 design manifesto, and in the spirit of its 2000 refresh, here is a 2014 update addressing the social impact of design in the digital age.

Added to my growing list of design manifestos.

From an interview with Molly Crabapple:

“Art can change the world, but seldom in the way it intends, and seldom the art that people think would have that effect.

I keep thinking of the Guy Fawkes mask Dave Gibbons drew. In discussions of what art is radical, mainstream comics are seldom brought up. And yet… I also think of an interview I read with Greenwald where he said that what convinced him of Snowden’s sincerity about bringing forward his revelations was when Snowden told him he was inspired by video games and comic books.

There is radical, explicit art, but there’s also art that worms into the culture and decades or centuries later bursts forward in unimagined effects.”

In 2008, Erica Chenoweth published a study comparing 323 violent and non-violent civil resistance campaigns between 1900 and 2006. Among her findings:

• Non-violent campaigns worldwide were twice as likely to succeed as violent insurgencies.
• This trend is increasing — in the last 50 years civil resistance has become increasingly frequent and effective, while violent insurgencies have become increasingly rare and unsuccessful.
• Campaigns were successful once they'd achieved the active and sustained participation of just 3.5% of the population — and many succeeded with far less than that.
• Every single campaign that surpassed the 3.5% threshold was a nonviolent one.
• Campaigns that relied solely on non-violent methods were on average four times larger than the average violent campaign — and much more diverse and inclusive.

Erica presented her research at TEDxBoulder last month:

She's also posted an FAQ and a transcript of her talk along with links and footnotes.

Fantastic post on Demos on the importance of building power vs charity. I hate to give away the punchline (it's a short post—go read it now) but this really nails it:

“Certain kinds of everyday heroism will always be important and unavoidable, but the goal of a set of social institutions should be to destroy as many opportunities for heroism as possible. Heroism is only possible where some kind of tragedy is imminent. But a good social system snuffs out avoidable tragedies before they even have a chance of approaching imminence. In many cases therefore, the existence of heroism is actually a deeply troubling symptom of overall political dysfunction. It should not be met with adoration, but with horror and concern.”

I see this in design activism all the time. For instance, everyone loves when designers step up with charity. But there's important work for designers also in helping to build infrastructures (social, political, physical) to mitigate the impact of disasters in the first place.